T. and an expert on the Main Asteroid Belt, points out, the belt could have never hosted a planet large enough to claim Mars as a satellite.

FORBES: Main Asteroid Belt No Remnant Of Exploded Planet

The zone is a belt of low pressure that wraps around the planet.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The probe, which launched in 2007, reached Vesta a few weeks ago, and will be spending about a year there before it departs on its three year journey to the dwarf planet Ceres, also located in the asteroid belt.

FORBES: Stunning Photos of Vesta from Dawn

Preliminary mapping data show that Vesta is a world layered in many different rock types and minerals, supporting the notion that it might have become a major planet had it not been trapped in the asteroid belt's powerful gravitational rip tides.

WSJ: Asteroid Vesta Gets a Close Study